Abstract

Background

The Fulani are known to be less susceptible to Plasmodium falciparum malaria as reflected by lower parasitaemia and fewer clinical symptoms than other
sympatric ethnic groups. So far most studies in these groups have been performed on
adults, which is why little is known about these responses in children. This study
was designed to provide more information on this gap.

Results

The results revealed that the Fulani children had higher levels of all tested cytokines
compared to the Dogon, in particular IFN-gamma, a cytokine known to be involved in
parasite clearance. Out of all the tested chemokines, only MCP-1 was increased in
the Fulani compared to the Dogon. When dividing the children into infected and uninfected
individuals, infected Dogon had significantly lower levels of RANTES compared to their
uninfected peers, and significantly higher levels of MIG and IP-10 as well as MCP-1,
although the latter did not reach statistical significance. In contrast, such patterns
were not seen in the infected Fulani children and their chemokine levels remained
unchanged upon infection compared to uninfected counterparts. Furthermore, the Fulani
also had higher titres of malaria-specific IgG and IgM as well as IgG1-3 subclasses
compared to the Dogon.

Conclusions

Taken together, this study demonstrates, in accordance with previous work, that Fulani
children mount a stronger inflammatory and antibody response against P. falciparum parasites compared to the Dogon and that these differences are evident already at
an early age. The inflammatory responses in the Fulani were not influenced by an active
infection which could explain why less clinical symptoms are seen in this group.